Before the Dawn
by silrayn silverwolf
Summary: What if Aya's past is more twisted what it seems? What if Aya-chan was his wife instead of his sister and Schuldig his lover? SchuAyaBrad Triangle *implied yaoi* Run away from trouble and it will catch you...
1. Schuldig

**Title:** before the dawn   
**Author:** silrayn silverwolf   
**Disclaimer:** Weiß doesn't belong to me   
**Spoilers:** Anime series   
**Warnings: **PG13 to R for issues, another wacky AU   
**Inspired by: **a very twisted imagination   
**Pairings: **SchuAyaBrad Triangle again, and hopefully, this time it's something you people will agree to. ^^;   
**Teaser: **What if Aya's past is more twisted than it first seems? What if Aya was really his wife and not his sister? What if… 

**Before the Dawn**   
WEIß KREUZ FANFICTION

**Part 1 - Schuldig**

Abyssinian moved with sinuous grace across the floor of the ceremony floor with the rest of his team. Schuldig followed the other redhead with his eyes, striving to conceal his feelings. He knew he wasn't the only one watching the Weiß redhead. Crawford also watched the Weiß leader with an attentiveness that made the German want to smash his fist into the precog's face. 

_Now, now, you can't be that cocky… Not just yet…and would he welcome such an intervention? You don't even know. He has changed since the last time you saw him. Changed and not necessarily for the better. His years in Kritiker would change just about anyone… Besides, there is her to consider…or is it Crawford now that's the problem? _

Schuldig remembered that sweet time so long ago and tried to find some comfort in that. 

_Not that it was a nice time or the joy unflawed…_

*** 

"Sv--" 

"Schuldig" 

"Schuldig…" Ran moaned as the man brought his mouth down to lick at newly sensitive places. They were both completely naked lying on the sheets of the motel room. The musk scent of sex lingered in the air. 

"I've got to go…home." Ran said, in between uneven breaths. 

"Now, now little one. We're just starting to become acquainted." 

"Don't you remember that I've got a wife waiting for me?" 

"When did you marry her? At sixteen, and not knowing any better. She's as much your wife as I am. Heck, I've better right after what we just did! Tell me, have you even slept with her yet?" 

"Aa--" 

"What?" 

"I have slept with her." 

"And how did you find it?" 

"It was pleasant…" Ran's embarrassment felt like an uncomfortable flush on Schuldig's own cheeks but the answer just set him off. 

"Pleasant! Are you telling me that what we have was 'just pleasant' as well?" 

"Ie…but I do have a responsibility." 

"A responsibility, and don't you think you also have an obligation towards me?" It stung that Ran felt a responsible to that hussy who had taken the younger redhead away from Schuldig. 

_We have been friends before…and I had fully intended to make it more…I thought you knew…Ran…_

"I agreed to it, my parents didn't force me. I'd better go back." Ran said with a finality that belied the confusion in his mind. 

_An opening, a seed, and maybe someday, I will have you…_

"Aa, I'll take you back, if that's what you want." Schuldig sighed in disappointment. He knew that it wasn't wise at any rate to keep Ran out for so long. The elder Fujimiya was his contact to the Interpol. It wouldn't be wise to antagonize the man by making it obvious that he was sleeping with the son. Especially when it was equally obvious that the man was a conservative, judging from the way he had arranged matters for that son. 

_He must have suspected… Ah well, Ran's certainly old enough to do whatever he pleases. Though I do have to wean him slowly, he's such a classic eldest child…_

It was the night that Ran's perfect life fell apart. 

*** 

They had gone out of the car into the turmoil of the street. The house Ran's parents had been living in was a smoking inferno. 

"What happened?" 

"Heard a rumbling, came out of our house and saw…" 

"Went up like the New Year's…" 

"That was the Fujimiyas…" 

"'tousan? 'kaasan? Aya…?" Ran whispered. He had been out of the car in a flash, into the chaos and was lost to Schuldig for a moment as he had been lost in the babble of voices in and out his head. When the roar cleared, they stood around the bodies that had been Ran's family. 

_No, Ran's parents, Aya wasn't yet dead but might well… Typical, the lucky bitch wouldn't die cleanly so that I can get Ran from her grasping clutches…_

Schuldig thought bitterly. _Just my luck… _

"Uh, Ran, I have to be going." Schuldig interjected tentatively. 

"Sve--Schuldig--don't go." Ran clutched at the orange-haired telepath's coat. 

"I have to or I'll be in deep trouble. Especially…" 

"I don't want to lose you too." They both knew that Schuldig was in all likelihood in trouble already. 

_If they torched Ran's father for his connections then my cover's probably compromised already… Kuso, but…I can't abandon my post…but how about Ran? Maybe it's best that we separate for the moment…let him think of what we did and the consequences are. Besides, I don't think I want to see the fall out of this one. _

Through the haze of mind-numbing grief were the beginnings of guilt… 

_* 'tousan, 'kaasan, Aya, I should have been with you…I might not have done much but…I might have…I should have… *_

Schuldig didn't want to be around when the guilt turned bitter into self-loathing and disgust for what they did... The denial of the beauty of what they had that one instant. The unspoken love that they had denied all these years… 

_Coward! Yeah, I don't deny that. When he has time to think about it, he'll come to his senses… _

"I can't desert my post. You understand that…" Schuldig said. Regretting what he must do but doing it nonetheless. 

"Aa. Take care." Ran understood well enough. They were both agents' children and knew that the mission had priority. Though it remains to be seen if Ran would have the nerve to follow the footsteps of his parents. 

_After this, I couldn't blame him if he wanted to cut ties and live in peace… An agent's life is never peaceful or sure. _

"You, too." 

Ran nodded and turned to tend to his dead and nearly dead. 

*** 

That had been the last time Schuldig had seen Ran, as the younger redhead had been, innocent and clean of blood. He had heard later that the redhead had joined Kritiker as an operative. Still it had been a shock to see him even then… 

*** 

"Yes, play it on a bit more…" 

Click. 

"Yes, there. Zoom in." 

Click, click, click. 

"That's it, he's the one, the redhead. Good work, Nagi." 

"What do you want me to do, Crawford?" 

"I want you to find out about him…all about him." 

Schuldig looked over Nagi's shoulder startled speechless by the purple eyes that stared back at him defiantly. 

_His hair's longer than before… His face is harder than before. Eyes colder, but what does he think he's doing, using a sword for a weapon? I mean he trained for that since his father was a fair bit insistent but I know he can handle a gun. He was the top sharpshooter in his bunch of kiddies…_

"Schuldig…" 

"Huh?" Schuldig replied. He snapped himself out of comparing how the Ran in the screen had differed from the Ran he had known years and years ago. 

_Remember where you are and whom you're with…_

"Do you know him?" Crawford demanded. 

"What if I did?" Schuldig taunted. There was something about his tone that Schuldig didn't like. 

"Schuldig--" 

"Why should I?" 

"I'm warning you--" 

_Uh--oh--better come out and say it or he'll take disciplinary measures…_

Crawford enjoyed taking those measures all too well on Schuldig's hide. 

"I saw him before in one of my missions for Takatori. He was much, much younger then. A son of the Fujimiya…banker…I think. The one Takatori asked me to threaten." 

"Aa. So…that's his grudge against Takatori. Nagi find out who hired him…" 

It was only much, much, much later that Schuldig managed to understand the note in Crawford's voice. It was interest and it bothered him more than ever. 

_Ran is mine. How dare he? How dare…_

*** 

"Should we declare our true loyalties now?" Schuldig asked. 

"No, we'll wait until only one of the Elders are dead. They don't need any other help than that." Crawford said, assuredly. His brown eyes did not stray away from the advance of the Weiß leader. They followed every move with possessive glee. 

Schuldig gritted his teeth. 

_Remember don't let Crawford get to you… Remember Interpol has an escape planned for both of you… He'll never see him again, not ever…_

Crawford had been most ardent in the pursuit of the Weiß redhead. First, taking on all the fights with Abyssinian, then 'threatening' the kitten. Schuldig wasn't fooled a bit. Those meetings took place in tiny places of dubious repute and lasted for hours. The German knew because he had followed them at least once… 

*** 

"I'm off for a bit of business. Might take all night." Crawford said casually as he walked out of the door of the Schwartz apartment. The precog was dressed for mayhem in a full-body leather suit that left very little to imagination. 

_Business, hah! Monkey business most likely…_

Schuldig had read where his 'leader' was going and that made him annoyed as hell. He decided to follow the man to make sure that the precog wasn't going to try anything on Aya. He waited until he heard the man's car pull out of the garage and then went off to follow him. 

He beat the precog to the gay bar by a precious fifteen minutes and waited in the darkest corner for his boss to show up. 

Crawford walked into the bar with one arm around the Weiß redhead. Ran was wearing a tiny sapphire-silk tee more suitable to Kudoh and low-slung black denims that looked like they were about to fall off except for the fact that they seemed painted on and his ever-present boots. Schuldig noted that he didn't have any objections as to how the American's hand tended to wander around the vicinity of his butt nor to the possessiveness implied by the way the brunette had shown him to his seat. He allowed Crawford to shove into the same small seat and to pull close to him. 

_Crawford must have used Aya-chan against him… Must be forcing Ran to comply to his twisted demands, Ran wouldn't be caught dead with him otherwise…_

Schuldig was ready then and there to charge at the 'couple' to rescue his Ran when he saw the other redhead turn to whisper something to Crawford. 

_Unwilling, my ass…_

Schuldig's blood was boiling as he tossed his mug of beer and left the bar. 

*** 

Schuldig had to wonder at the current situation when they were going to betray the Estet Elders to Weiß. 

_Was it something Ran and Crawford had cooked up together? If so, will Ran go tamely when Interpol takes us both out of our respective positions in Kritiker and Schwartz? _

There was just no way of knowing what will happen next… 

**~TBC~**

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

- This is a rehash of the "Behind the Rivalry Arc" plot with a strange twist, ne? A stranger AU than ever, a guarantee from me, writer of Dark Side of the Mirror. 

- Since Schu-Schu doesn't have a real name officially. I dubbed him Sven Eilering…for no other reason than 'cause when I browse several German name sites I liked it the most. No, I don't know anyone by that name and I hope no one with that name gets offended…^^; 

Schuldig: don't I have any say in my own name?   
Silrayn: No.   
Schuldig: *sulks then pops into a small orange kitsune*   
Silrayn: don't you know there aren't any orange kitsune allowed in this fic! *bashes Schu-Schu with a broom* 

Schuldig's "name" taken from:   
First Name taken from: http://www.serve.com/shea/nameland.htm   
Last Name taken from: http://www.daddezio.com/genealogy/german/surnames/german-001.html 

- title taken from the saying "It's always darkest before the dawn".   



	2. Aya

Before the Dawn 

WEIß KREUZ FANFICTION 

**Part 2 - Aya**

Ran looked at Sv--Schuldig's head as he looked at his ticket, correction, tickets.  It seemed that his superiors had given him an option to opt out of sitting beside his fellow agent if he was so inclined.  They were wise enough to know that their agents were human and some parts played can get internalized after awhile, Schwartz versus Weiß.  He turned both tickets round and round his hands, wondering...

Should I sit down beside him?  He's such a touchy, temperamental bastard...I can still remember that time when he took offense for my staring at him...  

It was Ran's first trip out of Japan.  His father had left him in the waiting room of the office while the man tended to some business.  

***

There were so many kinds of people that Ran couldn't stop looking at them with astonishment every time one of them came in the door.  They came with all shades of hair, eyes and skin.  They had sharp features, more hawk-like than Ran was used to.  They were just different...

"Hey, Jap-boy, whatcha staring at?" An orange-haired boy snapped, smirking at me evilly.

"Uh--"

"Don't you have better things to do than stare at people."

"Uh--Sorry..."

 "Well, I like that.  Nothing to say for yourself?"  The older boy huffed.

"My name's Ran Fujimiya, what's yours?"  Ran blurted out the only thing he could think of.

"I'm Sven Eilering.  Nice to meet you."  The other said wryly in a lightning change of mood.  

That was the first time Ran had met Sven Eilering...alias Schuldig...

***

They had been so young then, Ran just turning six and Sven...

"Sir, you have to sit down, the plane is about to take off..." A stewardess gently prompted him.  

I think I'll leave it to Sv--Schuldig to decide...  

Ran decided in a flash giving the stewardess the ticket for the seat beside Schuldig and allowed himself to be herded.  He sat down beside the atypically silent telepath.

What is he thinking?

"Enjoyed your little game with Crawford, Aya?"  Schuldig retorted into the heavy silence.  The nastiness was like a blow to Ran.

What does he know about it?  I did what I could to preserve Weiß and Aya-chan.   Yes, they were only temporary and I was sent to spy on Kritiker that doesn't erase the fact that they were my team.   My team and my responsibility as much as Aya-chan is... 

***

The warehouse was dark and dank.  Somehow, Crawford had managed to get Aya alone...

"Fujimiya Ran, isn't it?"  

Aya swiped at the gaijin with his sword.

"Pitiful...I can't understand how do you expect to survive us.  With your weapons and your current skills."

Aya didn't deign answer that but continued to swing his sword ineffectively at the precog.  Crawford was avoiding every blow with insulting ease not even breaking in sweat when he was panting with the effort to try to catch up.

"Schwartz is much, much more superior than Weiß.  Do you agree?" 

Aya just huffed and continued to swipe his sword at thin air.  With a masterful dodge by Crawford that he didn't anticipate, he found himself disarmed and slammed to the wall by the larger man.  He felt his mouth invaded by the older man's tongue as the precog kissed him savagely and thoroughly.  The kiss ended as it quickly as it had begun the tongue withdrawing before he could bite down on it.

"It would be a pity if that comatose sister of yours would be accidentally disconnected from the life support system."  Crawford breathed on his face.

"What do you want from me?" Aya finally asked, giving Crawford a death glare.

"Oh, nothing much...just some of your time every week."  Crawford said as he released Aya abruptly.  Then, taking advantage of Aya's surprise, he disappeared into the catwalk above.

***

After that, Aya spent some time "dating" Crawford every week on the sly.  At first, it had been quite forced, just another obligation to the team and to Aya-chan but in time Aya begun to feel something for the sadistic bastard.  

Crawford never roughed up Aya in public and was always considerate of the redhead.  In their bouts in the motel, the American was rough in the horseplay but never to the point of bruising.  He never tried to force Aya into bed either.  Something that Aya had found somewhat confusing.  The precog, it seemed, misunderstood Aya's ambivalence for innocence...

***

"Have you ever had anyone before, koi?" Crawford purred into Aya's ear as he had the redhead up on the couch arm of the motel room.  They were half-lying down with Crawford on top of the younger man.

"Hn."  Aya could hardly tell the man of his first time with Schuldig.  

_Knowing him he'd burst a blood vessel then stomp out of here and kill Sven in the most painful way..._

Aya had seen what acts of jealousy Crawford was capable of...

***

Aya and Crawford sat around in a ridiculously small round table.  The bar was more shabby than usual owing to the fact the Crawford thought Schuldig was starting to suspect something was up.  That thought twisted a hot wire around Aya's stomach so he had agreed to this place.

Sven's not going to take this well when he finds out...if he hasn't yet.  We really haven't promised but...and there's Aya-chan.

Aya's heart plunged at the thought of ever having to explain this to his wife.  Despite the fact that Crawford made his skin crawl, the precog still got much more reaction than Aya-chan.  He could almost wish that she would never wake up... 

_No that's now really unfair.  It's not her fault that you seem to feel more alive in some man's arms than in hers..._

"Hey, beautiful.  Why don't you give up on the pussy-gaijin and getting a real man like me?"  A drunken man asked.  He was with a punker hairstyle and all in leather over ornamented with metal and his breath stank of alcohol.  Crawford had left the table to get their drinks.

"Hn."  

"Stay away from my koi."  Crawford said in a steely voice that brooked no argument as he put on the doubtful looking glasses on the table.

"And who are you to say, pussy-boy?" The bruiser bellowed, windmilling several punches at Crawford.

Crawford ducked and planted two well-placed punches in the man's kidneys, which knocked the bigger man down.  Then he coolly broke the man's nose.

"Are you alright, Aya?"  The precog asked, without missing a beat.

"Aa."

***

Crawford wasn't the type to let anyone mess with his boy.  He had made that clear at that time and more than that.  The American preferred to mutilate anyone whom dared to even approach Aya.  He would certainly react violently to anyone who had his koi. 

_I don't want to find that he sent Sven off into an impossible situation...or worse..._

"Hn." Aya said finally, willing the precog to make what he would of that.

"Aa.  We'll take it slow then."  Crawford purred even more.  His voice a burr of possessive sound that made sent a shiver down Aya's spine even through the heady relief Aya felt.   

_Good.  He isn't going to question me anymore._

***

From that time on, Crawford took for granted that Aya's skittishness for uncertainty.  Their courtship assumed a leisurely and sweet rhythm that made Aya wonder how much more he could take before caving in to the older man.  Crawford was rough, he never doubted that he was with a man not a woman for all he spent with the American but there was innate consideration that made him doubt his feelings even more.  He couldn't forget that one-night stand with Sven.  He never felt anything like the first time.  

_It would be simpler if I could fall for Crawford... What am I saying?  Better if I fallen for Aya-chan, then nothing would be as complicated as this... Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking at that time when I consented...  No, I remember that day..._

***

The birds were singing in the cherry trees.  The lake was endlessly blue, reflecting the sky.  When the air was disturbed by a high, piercing voice.

"Ran-kun, do you like ice cream?"  Aya-chan asked as they walked in the park.  

Ran interpreted that as Aya wanting some so Ran bought her a cone.  He was rewarded with a smile and some silence.

_Well, I could do worse..._

Ran's father was firm believer of the old ways so Ran thanked the gods that, at least, the wife the man found for him was pretty.  He didn't want to disappoint his father after all by refusing.  Aya-chan was a rather lovely girl and she came from an Interpol family as Ran had.  She might be a little irritating at times with her capriciousness and chattering ways but then Ran was sure that his silence and moodiness was as irritating to her.  

_I could live with her and we could get use to each other in time..._

***

That was what Ran had thought then.  But now... Now he truly wondered if he could have.  

_No, the doubt is older than that..._

It started on the night Sven and he had made love to each other.  It felt much better than with Aya-chan and he couldn't help thinking then...

***

The silky feel of heated skin against heated skin...  Slow moving caresses down his breastbone into his stomach...  Liquid heat from his nipples ran deep into his very being... The slow thrusting heat slowly opened him...gently advancing, stopping now and again so that he could get used to the invasion...  Then the caresses in and out making him gasp and the thought before everything turned fuzzy and light...

_I could love you, Sven-chan..._

***

It was unfortunate that they had no chance to explore the feeling... Things had careened out of control and everything was swept away by Takatori's plans.  Vengeance became the primary concern.  Then there was Crawford...  

Crawford and his games weren't what Ran wanted in a mate.  Quicksilver ambition, controlled rage and passions roiled under the surface façade of the precog.  Games played for pleasure of tormenting someone else.  Games played to get more power.  Games played for the sake of the game.  One would think Mastermind, Sven's alter ego, was more prone to playing such games than Oracle but Ran knew better.  He was the great spider in the webs that Schwartz spun.  Everyone danced to his sadistic tune.  

Ran sometimes feared that the tenderness the precog was showing to him was all feigned, all apiece with another game.  He did not intend to get raped or enslaved.   However, Crawford never behaved even slightly in character when he was concerned.  He really didn't know what to believe.

And admit it Ran, you loved the power rush that came with having one of the strongest assassins you've ever known accede to your wishes...

Crawford was sweetly compliant to Ran's demands for him to betray Estet.  

_Of course, it might have been in his plan anyway... But still...  _

That was why he was on the plane now.   It may be his duty to give his final reports and to get away without being found out but all the same, he welcomed the chance to get away from his putative boyfriend and his wife.  His now conscious wife from what his contact's report said.  

_I'm such a coward...but it's only that I don't know what to say to both of them..._

All the lies had piled up to an ungainly heap. It was only a matter of time before Crawford would find out that Aya-chan was Ran's wife.  Then Aya-chan would find out Crawford was Ran's boyfriend, well sort of his boyfriend.  And then, everything will go unpleasantly downhill from there...  

_Not that this is any better.  Out of frying pan and into the fire..._

***

"Hn."

"Don't give me that!  How could you have turned up sweet to that...that..." Schuldig was fairly sputtering with rage.

"Hn. And why couldn't I?"  Aya asked.  

_And what right did you have to question me...  You left me on my own, or don't you remember?_

Despite the rational part of Aya's mind that kept telling him that the telepath had no choice then, there was still a part of him that resented that desertion five years ago...

***

_I should have been with them…_

The smoke and the confusion centered along the place that was his home for most of his life…  Shell shocked, he goes to the bodies of family, the wreckage of his life.  He couldn't cry he had to be strong…  Aya-chan still lived and he must live for her now.  Wetness on my hands… _Rain?_

"…I have to be going."  It penetrated through the haze of his troubled thoughts.

_No, I'm not going to lose you too…_

"Sve--Schuldig--don't go."  

_Understanding from the start that you really need to go… _

"I have to..." Everything else blurred, just words melting into each other.

_I knew that you were going to say that…_

"I don't want to lose you too."  

_There it is out in the open…_

***

Schuldig left Aya there even then.  

_I cried for you, too, that day…_

Aya grieved for the other man, thinking he wasn't going to see his lover ever again.  Though somehow the telepath had come through and that rather put Aya off balance at first.   

_Not that it mattered.  We could never have been together then, at any rate…  He was technically Schwartz and I, technically Weiß it would never work out…then…but now…what about now?_

Aya's musings were interrupted by Schuldig's belligerent voice.

"Because you were mine, damned it!"

Aya just looked at Schuldig.

"Okay, that was uncalled for.  I know it's been years but how can you?  When you don't feel that much for him?"

"Oh?"  Aya gave the telepath an annoyed look.  

_How do you presume to know that?  You haven't seen me in years except for b--oh, I see…_

Still it wouldn't do to give in.  Aya's own anger rose up a notch.

"Who's the--"

"--Telepath here?"  Aya finished for the German.

"So why did you hang around with Crawford so much?"  The sarcasm could've peeled paint off the walls.

"Hn."

"Don't give me that!"

"Hn."

"Are you going to force me to mind-read you?"

"It's none of your business!"

"Well, just give it over…"

_That's torn it…_

"Are you sure you're the Sv--Schuldig--I know?  I mean you seem to act so much in character…"  

"I just…" Schuldig trailed off uncertainly.  He definitely looked flustered.  Confusion erased the customary smirk on his face, softening his expression.   Aya looked at him with fascination. His eyes seemed so much bluer without the usual cynicism in them.   

Aya didn't know who started it but he felt himself being kissed by his seatmate and started to kiss back.

"Well, well, well who do we have here?  " A voice mocked Aya and Schuldig with its familiarity.  It made both cringe and spring apart, interrupting their kiss.

"Crawford…" Aya said almost voicelessly.

Everyone stood up to point a gun at both Schuldig and Aya.  

_We are in such deep shit…_

**~ TBC ~**

**Author's Notes:**

I don't know how the end to this darn thing…yet… At this point, it's Schuldig/Aya ending though since I do love Crawfish so much it might change… Some 'spinal support' may help…


End file.
